Operations of the Allied Geographical Section, General Headquarters, South-West Pacific Area.

An expansive record, classified "restricted", one of a small number set aside "for individuals whose participation in the campaigns of the South-West Pacific Area, in command and staff positions, has been outstanding." This set was reserved for the compiler, Colonel Jardine-Blake, the Allied Geographical Section's director from 1942 to the close of the war. Each volume opens with an introductory sheet, personalized with Jardine-Blake's name and signed by Major-General Charles A. Willoughby, General MacArthur's director of intelligence during the war. Jardine-Blake (1894-1971), Australian Imperial Force, served at Gallipoli during the First World War and as a civil servant in Fiji during peacetime. Recalled in 1939, he was assigned to G Branch, Directorate of Military Intelligence. "After Japan's entry into the war in December 1941, it became evident that terrain information then available on the South-West Pacific Area, particularly on the vast reaches of New Guinea, was inadequate for planning and operational purposes. An Allied Geographical Section. was created in an effort to deal adequately with the requirements of staff and troops" (preface). For his contributions to intelligence work, he was one of the few Australians awarded the US Legion of Merit. The first plate in the main volume is a photographic portrait of Jardine-Blake. The text, supported by a large number of maps and plates, provides a general history of the section and contains detailed intelligence information on Japan, New Guinea, the Philippines, and China. Of particular interest is Appendix V, a September 1945 strategic report on the Otomari Area, of the kind that proved invaluable to the occupying Allied forces, and a lengthy periodic intelligence summary, "Military Geography of China", classified "secret" and compiled in December 1947. In the pocket at the rear of the first appendix volume are two classified wartime handbooks on New Guinea and a slim advisory guide issued to SWPA troops operating in the field. This was one of a nine-work series of publications on intelligence work during the Pacific War. Circulation of such sensitive information was strictly limited: of the 75-100 copies produced of each, the majority were issued for use at military training schools in the US. Of this set, WorldCat records copies at the US Army War College, the Navy Department Library, Yale, and Michigan only. 3 vols, foolscap quarto folders. With 77 plates (16 folding), 59 maps (56 folding, many in colour), 4 folding tables; illustrations, tables, and charts in text. Contents mostly duplicated typescript, interleaved tabs. Original buff boards hinged with red cloth, front covers lettered in brown, contents fastened with metal clips, Appendix Vol. I with end pocket holding 3 further publications (see note). Bindings worn and sunned, rusting at clips but holding strong and firm, a few maps creased where incorrectly refolded, occasional offsetting internally, text pages often toned: a very good collection.…